The Swiss National Bank has cut interest rates to 0.5pc and opened the door for emergency stimulus, becoming the first country in Europe to flirt with zero policy rates, the Telegraph reported. Thomas Jordan, a board member of the SNB, said the bank was mulling extreme measures to stabilise the financial system and cushion the economy as it falls into recession next year. “We could engage in quantitative easing and we could intervene in foreign exchange markets or we could buy up bonds and try to influence long-term interest rates. All these options are open and we’re not limited in any way in choosing from among these instruments,” he said. The Telegraph described quantitative easing, a monetary policy pioneered by the Japanese, as “tantamount to printing money”.

This entry was posted by Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 5:26 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with quantitative easing, snb, switzerland. Edit this entry.